


Oh the Irony

by supercalvin



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-30
Updated: 2013-07-30
Packaged: 2017-12-21 20:17:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/904457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supercalvin/pseuds/supercalvin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I don’t think Arthur’s friends expected Arthur to kiss a random stranger. We have all read them before, another Merlin and Arthur meet after one thousand years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Oh the Irony

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Какова ирония](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4106149) by [bitter_zephyr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitter_zephyr/pseuds/bitter_zephyr)



> Not Beta-ed, if there is an issue please tell me.

Merlin was late. Again. He knew he didn’t actually need a job, but his neighbors might suspect something weird if he didn’t have one. Being immortal and all, his money was usually never spent and it accumulated, causing him to be richer than he needed to be. Though you couldn’t tell from the crap flat he lived in at the moment. He was running down a crowded street, which is why he ran straight into someone who was clearly in the middle of a group of people, and really Merlin shouldn’t have run into him that easily.

“Oh!” Merlin gasped as the air was knocked out of him. “I’m so sorry-“ the apology got stuck in his throat. Right in front of him was none other than the King of Camelot, Arthur Pendragon, The Once and Future King, reincarnated and looking extremely angry at the idiot who had just run into him.

“Watch it, would you?” he snapped. Merlin didn’t even pay him any mind.

“…Arthur?” he whispered as he covered his mouth. It had been over a millennium. A thousand years of waiting. Of longing. And now Merlin had this strange feeling that he needed to polish some armor he forgot about before Arthur reprimands him for it. Except, he could feel the signs of the modern day all around him: the coffee cup in his hand, the feel the tight jeans on his hips, and the cars whooshing past him.

“Excuse me?” Arthur raised a brow, obviously concerned with how this random stranger was staring at him. “How do you know my name?”

“I- um…” Merlin wondered how you were supposed to tell the man on the street that he was the reincarnation of a great king. Except he didn’t have to.

“Wha-Who the hell are you?…” Arthur squinted at Merlin like he was trying to remember from where he knew him. Then he whispered one word: “Merlin?” And Merlin watched Arthur as a lifetime literally flashed before his eyes.

Merlin lunged at Arthur, wrapping his arms around the Once-And- _Now_ -Future-King’s neck. Merlin pressed his face to Arthur’s neck and was surprised by how familiar it all was, though he had never seen Arthur in this life, and it had been a thousand years since he had seen the King.

“You clotpole! Never do that to me again!” Merlin’s voice was a little muffled by Arthur’s hoodie, and maybe a little bit of tears.

“I-Merlin…What’s going on?” Arthur asked. Merlin could tell that Arthur knew the past and the present but apparently Arthur didn’t know how they connected. He pulled Merlin away and looked Merlin in the eye.

“I’ve waited.” Merlin swallowed down some obvious tears. “I’ve been waiting. For you. Oh gods, Arthur, I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Waiting? What do you mean…?”

Merlin smiled a little and he could see that Arthur understood in that one expression, that Merlin had been waiting for Arthur to be reborn for over a thousand years.

“You idiot” Arthur growled, because he couldn’t handle the idea of Merlin waiting for him, never aging, never dying, for hundreds of years. And he grabbed Merlin’s jaw and pressed his lips to Merlin’s. It was like they had never left each other, like Arthur hadn’t died, and Merlin hadn’t been waiting for over a thousand years, never knowing if Arthur would rise from the lake, appear out of thin air, or be born once again. Arthur’s arms were the same, holding him tight. Arthur’s lips were the same, strangely chapped yet soft. Merlin almost thought Camelot had been reborn and he was a manservant once again, because he had never been this happy since Arthur’s death. Only Arthur’s return would have ever made his that happy ever again.

Then reality had come crashing down. They realized that, _yes_ , they were in the middle of the walking path, and that, _yes_ , Arthur had actually had a life before Merlin bumped into him and changed his now-life.

His friends, the people Merlin had completely brushed past before he ran head-long into Arthur, were _staring_ at the pair of them like they had gone mad. Well, at least, thinking that _Arthur_ had gone mad and whoever this crazy bloke was, had already been insane.

“Uh,” said a somewhat familiar voice behind Arthur’s head. “Arthur?”

But it was soon over powered by a loud wolf-whistle and boisterous chuckle. “Bloody hell, Arthur!” said an Irish accented man, “When the hell did you become a poof? I could’ve had my chance at you a long time ago!”

Arthur had pulled away from Merlin, though not letting go of him, for which Merlin was grateful, because he wasn’t letting Arthur out of his sight for at least the next hundred years. He could do it too; he had lived long enough to know. The blonde’s face was red, and Merlin could tell that he had acted irrationally with the impromptu kiss, obviously not used to liking men in this life (or maybe loving one man in another).

“Er…” Arthur stumbled.

Merlin looked over to see a grouping of curiously familiar faces. Leon was there, looking like second in line as always, and wearing a frown of concern for his king, er…his friend. Gwaine was there too, and Merlin saw that he was the one who had wolf whistled, his hair long and glorious as ever. Some things would never change.

Merlin never imagined that all the knights would come back too, but it seemed only right that Arthur would return with his kingdom and knights in tow.

“Who is this, anyways?” Gwaine said, thumbing a finger at Merlin, always the obnoxious one of the group.

Arthur looked at Merlin, then back at the group.

Merlin helped him out, “My name’s Merlin.” Someone snorted. He held out his hand, knowing deep down that the once-knights would never know the true irony of their names, because this secret would be only for The King and His Warlock.


End file.
